You'll Be The Reason
by TamedCapture
Summary: He's not sure why she's here but she's staring at him with large broken green eyes. Maybe her dreams died too.


Lucas Scott could have never guessed that his life would have changed this much in five years. The path he once dreamed of having never came. Instead it was ruined by a stupid decision that held such great distain for any future hope.

When he was younger he would have never chose to get in a car after drinking. It didn't matter if it was just one sip or five beers. He never did.

Haley always seemed to be the sober one after having a bad experience with alcohol. She deemed herself psychologically healed from the poison. In all reality, she'd make herself think that she was feeling sick to avoid getting sick. She always did like the dramatics but no one ever noticed because there was someone always upstaging her in that department.

One Friday night after a Raven's game, he, Nathan, and Haley decided to attend the party going down at TRIC. Some local band, just as Haley did once, performed and shined with brilliant new talent. Lucas was so intrigued by their heartless lyrics he bought the CD.

He had two beers but more than enough tequila shots to make any person squirm. Over the years he had built up a tolerance for the venom that seemed to burn his throat as it slid vicariously down.

What he never thought he'd do, is what he did. Without permission or even anybody's acknowledgement.

He drove home that night so unstable listening to the band's lost commotion of words that had a deeper meaning that he could imagine at the time. Nothing was deep; it all just barely reached his surface.

Anyone could have seen it coming.

His car had flipped going around dead man's grove. The long stretch of road was named appropriately. Many in Tree Hill have gotten seriously injured or died.

Lucas was one of the lucky ones in this unlucky state.

It was three months. Three months of nothing but pain and dealing. The pain wasn't even the worst of it. No it was the emotional backlash from everyone. Well not everyone… but the two people who had stayed in his life.

Nathan was so pissed at him for making one stupid decision after stupid decision. Apparently this had been his image of his older brother for some time but it was never verbalized. Nathan didn't hold in his anguish any longer through tonic stares.

Haley was the person to lean on. She stayed there day and night. Waiting for him to wake up, waiting for him to be able to come to terms, waiting for him to not be wrapped up in things he couldn't win. It was him. Her tears are what clouded his mind. She was his best friend and he once again made her feel like complete shit. And to think that he once again would be forgiven like all those other small discombobulated messes.

But in the end, they both offered their services. They aided him until he was able to aid himself. He crushed himself literally. His leg should have been amputated but it wasn't. He was blessed with a metal plate with rods holding it in place.

It was a reminder for the rest of his life. Surely it wasn't his style.

* * *

><p>So now he did what he did every Friday night. Think about all he could have done and all that he is doing. It wasn't much. He was reintroduced how his life isn't the same and it would never be as perfect as it once was.<p>

It was imperfectly perfect.

Lucas never finished college because of the accident. He would have already failed out of the semester he was registered in and it would have brought his GPA down. So once again he did what he thought he would never and dropped out.

He didn't let his life completely go to waste. He took a couple classes at a tech school right outside of Tree Hill and got reacquainted with the mainstream automobile business. He used to have such high regards for his skills with Keith but when he took up basketball, he had to give it up.

So for three years now, Scott Motors has been reopened.

Opening the door to his house his heart jumped out of his throat.

Lucas wasn't at all sure how the brunette had gotten inside of his house but he was sure it had something to do with the hidden key outside his bedroom in the dead plant dirt.

He hadn't seen her since she left for New York five years ago. Because once again she was one of the constants in his life and just as if everything seemed to do, she disappeared. The aches, the tiredness, and all of the feelings left with her.

He's not sure why she's here but she's staring at him with large broken green eyes. Maybe her dreams died too. Her hands are tightly linked together in her lap. She's dressed in a black sundress with matching black sandals.

And all he could think about as he moved across the living room is how she must feel disgusting sitting on his couch. The house is quite the mess. Items littered across the room without care or purpose. Kind of like them right now.

The room is filled with coldness, tension and no one wants to say a word.

And so they don't.

* * *

><p>The next day when Lucas wakes up he expects that she would have left. Instead she's in the kitchen cooking breakfast. The aroma from the eggs and bacon thrilled his senses and he couldn't help but sit down at the table and enjoy it.<p>

Lucas was the first one to speak and the last. He didn't know why he felt it was necessary that he share where he was going but he did. He told her that he was going to work and that he would be home later that night at seven.

When he closed the door before she even had a chance to speak he was sure that he wouldn't find her in his house when he came back that night.

He was wrong.

She comfortably slouched into the large couch, chest arising with every intake of breath and her long luscious brown locks sprawled along the edges.

Instead of waking her, he didn't. He didn't have the heart to.

He never ate dinner that night. With no appetite he went straight to bed.

* * *

><p>Lucas stopped assuming that she would be leaving. They finally had the conversations that they both didn't want to have in the beginning. The silence became tiring and so they spoke.<p>

It was about why his life fell apart with the accident. She explained how her life fell apart with the broken demise of a dream that she held onto for too long. About why she came back and chose to find herself in his house, and why he let her stay.

They loved each other. After all those years, Lucas still could never say no to Brooke. Because like the song Brooke once dedicated to him, 'I don't have a choice but I'd still choose you'.

Later that night, he heard her sneaking into his bedroom. She crawled into his bed and tucked her body beside his. Pressing small lavish kisses to his bare back, her arm lapped his lower back.

He never turned to let her know he was awake.

* * *

><p>Suddenly the days blurred to weeks and the weeks blurred to months.<p>

Time never waited for them. Not then and not now. So to see that Brooke wasted her time with Lucas astonished many but not more than themselves.

Suddenly everything came into focus.

Brooke would always be the one person that could imprint upon Lucas like no other.

His eyes were wide open. Alone he once stood, a broken man, and all he had was that last chance. And when Brooke showed up in his house that night, that was his last chance.

They might fall but…

There was nothing else to lose.

* * *

><p><em>Enjoy! Review! <em>

_Disclaimer - I own nothing. _


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